Occupation of the People - Agriculture - The rural inhabitants of Wayne county are emphatically an agricultural population, the term agricultural having reference to husbandry, tillage or culture of the earth.  Of Agriculture Rollin speaks:

    It may be said to be as ancient as the world, having taken birth in the terrestrial paradise itself, when Adam, newly come forth from the hands of his Creator, still possessed the precious but frail treasurer of his innocence; God having placed him in the garden of delights, commanded him to cultivate it; ut operaretur illum:to dress and keep it.  Genesis ii., 15.  That culture was not painful and laborious, but easy and agreeable; it was to serve him for his amusement, and to make him contemplate in the productions of the earth the wisdom and liberality of his Master.
     The sin of Adam having overthrown this order, and drawn upon him the mournful decree which condemned him to eat his bread by the sweat of his brow; God changed his delight into chastisement, and subjected him to hard labor and toil, which he had never known had he continued ignorant of evil.  The earth became stubborn and rebellious to his orders, to punish his revolt against God, and brought forth throns and thistles.  Vilent means were necessary to compel it to pay man the tribute of which his ingratitude had rendered him unworthy, and to force it by labor to supply him every year with the nourishment which before was given him freely and without trouble.
     From hence, therefore, we are to trace the origin of Agriculture, which, from the punishment it was at first, is become, by the singular goodness of God, in a manner the mother and nurse of the human race.  It is in effect, the source of solid wealth and treasures of real value, which do not depend upon the opinion of men - which suffice at once to necessity and enjoyment, by which a nation is in no want of its neighbors, and often necessary to them - which make the principal revenue of a State and supply the defect of all others when they happen to fail.  Though mines of gold and silver should be exhausted, and the moneys made of them lost - though pearls and diamonds should be prohibited - though all arts, which have no other object than embellishment and splendor, should be abolished, the fertility of the earth alone would afford an abundant supply for the occasions of the public, and furnish subsistence both for the people and armies to defend it.

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 - END OF CHAPTER XXV -

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